Reponse to Legal Issues in Purchasing

Hi Steve:

I was involved in Royal Oak School Board politics for about 10 years. After that amount of time with little results, I moved to Troy, where the taxes are high, but people were happy with the schools. At one point I was so desperate to get others interested, that I hooked up with a group of older men in Livona (Tony Brehler) called "The Grumpies." I recall (in the mid 90's) visiting one of them in the hospital and seeing your signs around that you were running for the school board. I asked is that was Steve King of the Dittilies ( I was a great fan from the lamplighter and Back Seat in Royal Oak) and I found out it was you.

I hope you had better luck than we did in Royal Oak - all my friends who got on the board actually got sued for firing the superintendent, but of course it didn't stick, was just one of their tactics. Royal Oak has the ROEA, a very active chapter of the MEA. My conclusion is that (1) none of it had much to do with kids, it was about the adults,(2)the teachers there were more like teamsters, and used all the districts funds to elect their select candidates, (we never won another election after getting a 4 person majority on the board the first year.)

So now I live on a lake that was beautiful for the first 4 years in Emerald Lakes, and has gone to crap over the last 5, and now I fight with the Sub Board (my girlfriend across the lake and I just took over the Lakes Chair Position to fix our lake, one of six lakes) and the next fight will be with the Oakland County Drain Commissioner. So I moved here to get out of politics and am right back in it. It seems that it never ends.

Good luck, the apathy regarding the schools is amazing. In fact, apathy is why our lake went to crap. Will look for the Dittilies again in the Rochester-Troy area, you guys are great, and it brings back memories.